Bugtraq: Regarding Mudge's OBP/FORTH root hack (PHRACK53)

[jnunn6 () RAWTEN OFF AI (Jericho Nunn)]

Hi,

    Aside from the fact that it left me quite flabbergasted for quite
some time, mudge's OBP memory manipulation for aquiring root priviledges
poses a serious risk for environments where SUN workstation consoles are
easily accesible to unpriviledged individuals, such as university labs.

    An easy and quick work-around that avoids granting  just anybody at
the console the ability to "Stop-A" and drop into OBP, is to enable the
"security-mode" and "security-password" variables within OBP.  Changing
the default value of "security-mode" from 'none' to 'full', forces a
user who tries to halt the system to authenticate against the password
defined in "security-password" before having access to the OBP command
line.

    Again, mudge never stops to amaze....

Regards,
Jericho.